It is official: ‘universal self-isolation’ in the Kaliningrad region is no longer operational1 and many people are back to work. Restrictions still apply for people over 65 years of age and those suffering from chronic diseases, and children under 14 years of age can only leave their homes when accompanied by an adult. These rules apply until 31 May 2020. Anybody arriving from outside the region is subject to quarantine.
The usual precautions, such as social distancing, should still be observed and it is now compulsory to wear masks in public places, shops etc, but wearing masks in the street is optional.
Shopping centres will be allowed to open, but for limited hours, but parks and sports grounds will remain closed and all large events with mass gatherings are prohibited.
At this point I am not quite sure whether cafes, bars and restaurants have been unshackled. My translation of the press report I am reading states ‘Some restrictions remain – for example, on the work of cafes and restaurants, hotels … ‘1
Diary of a Self-isolator: Day 54 [12 May 2020]
The official number of people infected with coronavirus in the Kaliningrad region has risen and today’s figure, at the time of writing (10.56am), is 7722.
“In total, to date in Russia 232,243 cases of coronavirus have been detected in 85 regions. Over the entire period, 2116 deaths were recorded, 43 512 people recovered.” (Source: newkaliningrad.ru2)
“Officials attribute the increase [in numbers of cases detected] to mass testing and detecting asymptomatic cases not always counted in other countries.” (Source: the moscowtimes.com3)
It was also reported today that the construction of a multifunctional medical centre in Kaliningrad is scheduled for completion by the end of this week4 .
My plans are much the same: a once-a-week trip to the local shop ~ oh, and wearing my mask as I do so …
The media may be slating Boris Johnson this morning over his obscurantist speech the day before, but I for one found it intensely amusing. I haven’t laughed so much in years. If I’d have been wearing false teeth at the time, I would most likely still be looking for them.
I am not altogether sure what is most amusing, Boris attempting to provide us with a catch-all solution when there is not one, or Joe (and Joanna) Public betting everything on an answer tailor-made for them and then being disappointed when they did not get it. Perhaps Boris should have filmed his address to the nation with Sooty’s magic wand in his hand, and then we would all feel better.
UK Coronavirus Confusion Strategy
Who was it who sang “Do you know where you’re going to, do you like the things that life is showing you?”
Is it the media, not our politicians, that have led us up the garden path and into the maze into which we now find ourselves? Consider the following headlines and out-takes from online news reports over the last two months:
Derbyshire Police force was heavily criticised for using a drone to “shame” people walking with members of their household in the Peak District. (27 March 2020) [What a terrible thing for the police to do. But aren’t they supposed to be enforcing the isolating rules?]
Coronavirus lockdown likened to ‘police state’ by former Supreme Court judge (30 March 2020) [So, does that mean that lockdown is unnecessary, bad, to be avoided? Was the Supreme Court established by Tony Blair?]
UK police warned against ‘overreach’ in use of virus lockdown powers (30 March 2020) [Police should enforce lockdown rules, but they haven’t got the power to do so?]
Keir Starmer calls for ministers to set out plans to end lockdown (15 April 2020) [Lockdown should end]
Coronavirus: Labour calls for lockdown exit strategy this week (15 April 2020) [Labour wants an ‘exit strategy’]
‘Blair and Brown never missed Cobra meetings (19 April 2020) [And? ~ Ahh, so perhaps it’s a positive thing that Boris has missed some of them?]
Coronavirus: Which are you? Britons are reacting to lockdown in one of three ways (27 April 2020) [Hoorah! It’s just a game]
Fearful Britons oppose lifting lockdown (2 May 2020) [But many people are opposed to lockdown, aren’t they?]
Coronavirus: UK to bring in two-week quarantine for air passengers (9 May 2020) [Why are people still flying into the UK? Why wasn’t this done earlier? Why are we in lockdown when people are still flooding in from other countries?]
I’m losing my teenage years (9 May 2020) [And?]
‘Recipe for chaos’: union leaders sound warning over return to work (10 May) [But I thought lockdown was tantamount to a police state and should it not be ended? And hasn’t the Labour party called for an end to it?]
Doctors and police warn of new coronavirus wave as UK lockdown weakens (10 May) [But I thought people wanted out of lockdown, as does the Labour party?]
Boris Johnson suggests coronavirus lockdown will be loosened on Monday (6 May) [That should please Labour as they want an ‘exit strategy’ and want lockdown to end, don’t they?]
Boris Johnson’s lockdown release condemned as divisive, confusing and vague (10 May) [It didn’t please Labour. If they have an exit strategy, perhaps they should tell Boris]
BBC’s Marr stuns Ashworth after blaming Labour for lockdown chaos ‘Take responsibility!’ (11 May 2020) [Truth is stranger than fiction]
And this is without citing the plethora of news stories about strange new symptoms …
UK Coronavirus Confusion Strategy
So, here we are in the Coronavirus Maze and we just do not know how to get out of it.
Economists, scientists, healthcare professionals, business consortiums, psychiatrists, ‘experts’, MPs, all scampering this way and that looking for the exit and the strategy that goes with it. But the most confused, and we could argue the perpetrators of confusion, seem to lie with certain ladies and gentlemen of the press. Does the confusion lie in a desperate almost hysterical pursuit of political point-scoring: which way and how can Boris and Boris’s government be discredited and the current crisis used to pave the way for Labour’s resurgence?
An extremely cynical friend of mine, who has always voted Liberal Democrats, opined, “Perhaps it would be better if a Labour government was in power. We might be on the edge of the precipice waiting for the final push, but at least if we go over we would meet our end with Labour right behind us, after all they have been pushing that way for years.”
(Photo credit: Tarey (pixabay.com))
I personally still believe that the ‘maze’ analogy is the best one, although ‘Shit Creek without a paddle’ could be a contender.
Yesterday was the 9th May, which is not surprising as today is the 10th May. But here, in Russia, the 9th May is one of the most important day’s in the nation’s calendar. It is, of course, Victory Day, the day when the nation celebrates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.
In lieu of the parade and formal celebrations that would have been held on the ground in Kaliningrad, we learnt from online local news that there would be a military flypast, which was scheduled for 10am.
Now, I am not entirely sure who got what wrong, but we were out of bed and on the terrace by 9.45am and, like our neighbours, gazing skywards. Nothing? Apart from a lovely blue sky.
Either the news feed was wrong, our clocks were caught up in one of those coronavirus conspiracies that everyone is talking about or else? I wondered if the planes that they were using were one of these new stealth jobs: so swift, so fast and so ultimately undetectable that they were there, but we just could not see them?
If this is the case, then airshows of the future are likely to be extremely challenging. Imagine thousands of spectators staring into the azure, a collective sweep of the head, deep intake of breath, loud round of applause, appreciative mumbling: “Wasn’t that a …” and “The way he, you know …” and “I really liked the, er, yes …” On the positive side, such airshows would be relatively easily to organise, inexpensive, no safety problems to worry about and the pilots could all stay at home, thereby running no risk of breaking social distancing rules, which is more than could be said for the spectators.
9th May Kaliningrad Social Distancing
Made of sterner stuff than you may think, we did not let this blip on the horizon, which we thought we almost saw, phase us, but continued to pay tribute on this special day as we had planned.
As I have said, it was a glorious spring day, and this enabled us to hoist a large red velvet soviet flag from the superstructure of the terrace canopy. This flag, of genuine vintage, has on one side a symbolic image of Vladimir Lenin and on the other the Soviet hammer and sickle emblem together with the names of the constituent republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Our immediate neighbours across the way had erected a Soviet victory flag and as we are people of many flags, we were able to give our neighbours on the ground floor another soviet flag, which went well with the patriotic marching music that they were playing from their gazebo.
Who is losing it?
During the day, my wife, Olga, occupied herself in what has become, sadly, as much a part of the annual event as the event itself. The controversial discord of who exactly won the war ~ was it the East or the West? This year the argument descended to a new level of bitter acrimony, thanks to what a friend of mine described in his usual vernacular as a lot of ‘shit stirring’. He spoke of deliberate attempts in the United States to abnegate acknowledgement of Russia’s decisive contribution to the defeat of Nazi Germany.
As if airbrushing out the Soviet Union’s inestimable role in defeating the Germans was not enough, adding insult to injury came, apparently, in a White House Tweet ‘On May 8, 1945, America and Great Britain had victory over the Nazis! “America’s spirit will always win. In the end, that’s what happens.”
Judging by the indignant comments on various Facebook posts, if this was a deliberate misappropriation, I would have to concede, using a football analogy, that someone in the US Revisionist Department has scored an own goal. It is bad enough having to endure relentless and politically motivated revisionism of historical TV dramas, but please could you desist from insulting our intelligence by trying to rewrite history itself. How about victory in WWII came about as a combined effort. As the refrain from the old 1960s’ pop song goes, “Wouldn’t it be nice to get on with me neighbours …”
Come the evening of 9th May, we were ready to sit down, relax and toast Olga’s derdushka for the part that he played in the war. The history of my wife’s grandfather is a rather interesting one and one that I hope to research and elaborate on at a future date.
My wife shared the memory of her grandfather, Alexei Dolgikh (1910-1987), on the 75th Anniversary of the Great Patriotic War, via social media, Facebook.
“With Victory Day approaching, I decided to share the following information about my grandfather, Alexei Dolgikh, Immortal Regiment.
“My grandfather Alexei Dolgikh (1910-1987) was born in Perm, where, before WWII, he worked as Secretary of the Komsomol District Committee. When the war began, he was transferred to an Officer’s College in the Far East (Nakhodka). After graduation, he was sent to the front. He took part in the Belorussian Front Military Offensive and was awarded the Medal for Bravery.
A young Alexei Dolgikh
“When taking part in the East Prussian Offensive, he was wounded in the Battle of Königsberg on the Kurshskaya Spit. He finished the war with the rank of Captain. When discharged from hospital after the war, he was asked to stay in Königsberg to serve in the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). He studied law and graduated from the Central Committee Party School in Moscow. He worked as Head of the Police Training College, retired at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Deputy Chief of the Regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Kaliningrad Region.
Thought to be taken around the time of the Russian Revolution: Alexei Dolgikh centre
“In spite of the fact that my grandfather was subjected to Stalin’s repressions and lost his health whilst imprisoned in one of the Gulags, until the end of his life his favourite toast was “For Motherland, For Stalin!’’
With colleagues of the MVD. Alexei Dolgikh third from left
“He believed that Soviet power was power for the people, a liberating power that gave him and other ordinary people the opportunity to realize their dream of free education, access to free health care and free housing.
“And he had it all, an ordinary boy from a peasant family in the Ural Mountains. Before the revolution this would have been impossible for people like him.
Alexei Dolgikh Immortal Regiment
“Throughout his life he loved poetry and music. His favourite poet was Sergei Esenin and his favourite music Russian folk songs. He wrote poetry himself and sang in the local choir until the age of 75, even when he became blind as a result of the torture he suffered whilst imprisoned in the Gulag.
“I will always remember him as the most loving and compassionate person I have ever met in my life. He was an example for me to follow — a man who loved life regardless of the hardships he endured.”
A toast to Alexei Dolgikh, 9th May Victory Day 2020
Thoughts on 9th May Victory Day Celebrations 2002/2020
Published: 9 May 2020
9 May is an important day in the Russian calendar. It is the day when the entire Russian nation pays homage to the sacrifices made by their forbears in World War II, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. Each year an impressive military parade is conducted in Red Square, Moscow, and simultaneous events are held throughout the country to commemorate the 27 million Russians ~ military and civilian ~ who died in the Second World War, the highest loss of any country.
Western leaders have been snubbing the parade for years, evidently finding it far easier to rewrite history than acknowledge the inestimable contribution made and loss suffered by Soviet Russia in defeating Nazi Germany.
Whatever underlies the political motivation and projected end game of such revisionism, apart from the obvious, provocative disrespect, it is pointless speculating on as, thanks to coronavirus, the world’s events are cancelled pending further notice.
As many as 15,000 soldiers have been stood down, and so has Mick Hart. I was looking forward to the celebration this year and was contemplating a trip to Moscow, but then along came a little round thing with trumpets stuck all over it and put the mockers on that.
9th May 2002 Kaliningrad
The last time that I attended a 9th May event in Russia, I was in Kaliningrad. This was way back in the mists of time, 2002, but I remember it vividly: bright sunny day, warm, blue sky ~ perfect.
As we walked towards the park, the hub of the celebrations, the first thing that struck me was the sheer volume of people that had turned out. It was relatively early, well, around 10am, and the streets were inundated. The second observation was that the age range extended across the entire generational spectrum, from the very young to wartime veterans. Within that broad swathe of people, teenagers and young adults from 14 years old to late 20s were well represented.
The latter seemed odd to me as this was and still is distinctly not the case in England. Our equivalent of Russia’s 9th May is V.E. Day, 8th May. It is officially acknowledged and in the past few years the tradition of street parties has been resurrected in some places, but both it and Remembrance Day, which is held on 11th November each year, attracts fewer and fewer young people.
I can appreciate, or at least understand, the disinterest for non-heritage youth but the sad fact remains that even legacy-UK youth have very little time, very little interest and even less respect for the sacrifices made by previous generations, let alone those that continue to be made by our serving military.
In more recent years, the very act of remembering the debt we owe to our armed forces has become a victim of a socio-political pincer movement, caught up in the machinations and fripperies of social engineering and political correctness. Pathetic spectacles of the red poppy, the traditional symbol of remembrance and peace, being burnt by dissident immigrants whilst the usual suspects on the left agitate to expunge the tradition, ostensibly on the grounds that it offends the sensibilities of certain foreign groups and sects, but really as part of a broader cultural purge, is grist to the carnival mill of neoliberal politics. But the real disrespect lies not in these sideshows, but in a cultural revisionist programme which invidiously subtexts the UK education system from primary school to university level.
Thankfully, the wind of change is blowing from various directions ~ even from a coronavirus one~ and achieving positive confluence, so perhaps there is hope for us yet?
From angst to Hallelujah in three paragraphs!
9th May Victory Day Kaliningrad
Meanwhile, back in Kaliningrad, Russia, 9 May 2002.
As we were walking Olga introduced me to two WWII veterans. The first was ex-Soviet Navy and the other Merchant Navy, and my presence at the celebration was warmly welcomed by both. Because of my involvement over the years with 1940s’ re-enactment and living history groups and through personal associations made when we ran a vintage and antique warehouse, I have been fortunate in that I have had many opportunities to meet and converse with veterans from various countries and from different services of the armed and auxiliary forces. It is 75 years since the close of the Second World War and each year the number of surviving veterans dwindle. I am grateful that I have had the chance to meet and speak to this remarkable generation before the era in which they lived and the experiences they encountered fade from living memory into history.
On our return from the war monument and park where the celebrations were being held, I would have the chance to meet more veterans, but first we went to place the flowers we had brought with us on the steps of the war monument next to one of Kaliningrad’s eternal flames.
Placing flowers at the 1200 Guardsmen monument, 9th May 2002, Kaliningrad
Photo-shoot opportunity with Russian soldier, 9th May Victory Day celebration, Kaliningrad, 2002
The 1200 Guardsmen monument, which was constructed a few months after Soviet troops wrested what was then Königsberg from the Germans, is arguably one of the most dynamic sculptures and wartime monuments in the city, and a fitting tribute in scale and drama to the fallen soldiers whose remains occupy the mass grave by which it stands and marks. The gas-powered eternal flame burns in front of a tall, carved obelisk. Behind and set back from the obelisk a curved wall bears the names of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the four days of savage urban warfare which it took to take the city. At either end of the wall, on massy plinths, two figural groups of soldiers storming into battle capture the cost in death and the glory in memory of what in its entirety is a truly awesome ensemble.
Mick & Olga Hart, Wedding Day 2001. Photograph taken at the obelisk of the 1200 Guardsmen monument, Kaliningrad
This was not my first encounter with the monument. We had been here before, on 31st August 2001 to be precise, on the afternoon of our wedding, when, in keeping with Russian wedding tradition, we had placed flowers on the monument steps, as we were doing today.
‘Kasha’ dispensed from a mobile military unit, 9th May 2002, Kaliningrad
From here we descended the steps into the park and walked towards a row of tables at the far end, where, my wife informed me, I would be able to refresh myself with mineral water or tea. There was quite a crowd assembled in front of the tables, and, as we drew nearer, I saw in the background, two or three old Soviet mobile ‘soup kitchens’. Olga revealed that on this occasion they were serving ‘kasha’, hot porridge. My inclination was to avail myself of a glass of water or tea, as I was parched, but lo and behold, as we arrived at our destination I found that not only was there free water and free tea but also free vodka! Well, it was far too early in the day for me to say no, and besides as the friends who we were with had already helped themselves to a glass apiece, it would, to coin a phrase, have been rude not to.
Partaking of vodka at the 9th May Victory Day celebrations in Kaliningrad, 2002
It was whilst we were imbibing that my wife told one of the staff serving behind the tables that I liked the t-shirts that they were wearing. There were about six people serving in total and all had white tea shirts with a printed ink outline image of Mr Putin on the front and on the back the slogan ‘Forward with Putin’. The chap whom Olga was talking to, when he discovered that I was from England and that I liked the shirt, immediately said that I could have it and, taking it off there and then, handed it to me. I still have this shirt, which, being almost 20 years old, must have acquired collectable status. It is, after all, a piece of significant political memorabilia.
Vodka gratefully received at 9th May celebrations, Kaliningrad, 2002. In the background you can just see the back of a Putin T-shirt, one of which was given to me on this day.
By the end of the day this, at that time contemporary political icon, would be joined by another, but one which represented Russia’s Soviet era.
We were making our way back from the park along the street busy with pedestrians when my attention was drawn to a group of lady veterans bedecked with medals and carrying aloft a large silk Soviet banner. Olga introduced me to them and as a token of their esteem for my attendance at the celebration that day, they presented me with a 9th May medal. This medal was home-made, constructed from cardboard with a pin back but, as with the Putin T-shirt, it is still in my possession, waiting to return home if or when coronavirus allows, along with many other personal items that I want to ship from England.
Kaliningrad 9th May Victory Day celebrations 2002: Lady Veterans
Had things been different I would certainly have been in Moscow this year, and history would recall that whilst many western leaders were conspicuous for their absence, Mick Hart did his duty and was there to fly the flag!
Aaah well, “This time next year …” as Del Boy was fond of saying, and I will qualify that with another aphorism, “Hope dies last!’
Patriotism & Romance: Wearing my 9th May medal, Kaliningrad 2002
LOCKDOWN! ~ the game that everyone is talking about …
LOCKDOWN! is one of a new trilogy of games from well-known boredgames maker, John Wankerson, sponsored by Kim Whetherfork in association with Big Pharma and the Chinese Tourist Beard. The object of the game is for one or more players to sneak off without the other players seeing them. The winner is the first one to send a postcard back from Skegness, without having been stopped on the way for breaking the social distancing rules.
UK LOCKDOWN NEW BOARD GAME
Players have to run the gauntlet of hysterical media headlines, leap over the boggy landscape of Conscience Mire, escape the Maze of Conflicting Stories, grapple with conspiracy theorists and eat Chinese takeaways. Bats (which is difficult to start a sentence with at this point) are no longer in the Belfry, a restaurant which has been closed down by public health officials, and players run the risk of forfeits depending on where they land. For example, on squares such as ‘LOOK OUT! THEY’RE OPEN!’, the player takes a LOOK OUT card, ie ‘Stop off at Kim Whetherfork’s for a pint, pay a £10 fixed fine or take a Chance and catch coronavirus’ and on other squares, such as VOTE LABOUR, there is no hope and it is just GAME OVER.
The full-length version of the game takes about 33 years to complete, unless a vaccine is discovered in the meantime, but the concise option, BLAME, takes less time than it takes to ask who left the backdoor open. Hatty Mancock, BLAME Executive without portfolio and mask, admits that distribution during the coronavirus epidemic may be a bit tight if not disingenuous, but the Onguardianism and The Indefensible cannot stop saying that 1 million will be available in the UK yesterday, now that we have a female Dr Who. In the United States, the game will be licensed under the tradeoff LOCKEDOUT, distributed by Mexican Wall inc, in very limited numbers. Forfeits will be replaced with Trumps and each game will come free with an imperial gallon of disinfectant. People living in deprived areas should not expect to acquire the game now, in the near future or ever, or run the risk of losing their privileged status.
LOOKOUT (™) is a trademark of The British Tourist Bored and is endorsed and enforced by Queer Stammer and the TUCs (Trades Union C_ _ _s)
It was reported today in The Indefensible that the British Government is considering introducing a new public holiday. The new Bank (meltdown) holiday, proposed in recognition of the affect that the UK media’s ‘new symptoms articles’ have had on the national psyche during the coronavirus period, will be officially known as British Hypochondria Day. It is expected that the holiday will be ‘mobile’ and only staged in times of epidemic and pandemic outbreaks.
In anticipation of people staying at home, The Skegness Pandemic Trust have organised a series of impromptu festivals that can be rolled out across the delightful backstreets of Skegness and in council flat parking lots, as and when required. Top billing will be by an extreme left-wing excuse for an entertainer, Rubber Band. There will also be a live band ~ if they still are, by the time you have broken social distancing rules. Tickets will be limited to the entire population of Great Brithead, but you will need a special self-isolating permit available from your local police station before setting out by charabanc, three to each seat.
The Foundation for Social Distancing, which has a staff of six experts who operate from a phone box in Scunthorpe, were not available for comment ~ and possibly never will be (for further information please contact the Co-op Chapel of Rest on Whitehall 1212*, options 3, option 6, option 9, please hold, I’m sorry all our representatives are helping themselves to the feeble excuse that they have other clients (calls at the new national rate cost £2 a minute); alternatively, further information can never be obtained online at www.crappywebsite.gordblessyu_guv.co.ok; or via our Chat service (please note you will always be 81st in the queue and sat there all day, ‘Hello, my name is Ogbog Muggeridiamin.”); the book Understanding Pigeon English is available free of charge when you leave us your bank details; alternatively please telephone the Samaritans on 116 123).
*Please note that calls to this number are monitored for quality and training purposes, which basically means that since we are so inept at our job we expect to receive a lot of verbal abuse from you, so we let you know that we are recording you as part of a national terror campaign that undermines any rights that you naively think you might have.
